Head of Science Foundation Nominated for No. 2 UC Post
Walter E. Massey, director of the National Science Foundation, was nominated Wednesday to become second-in-command of the University of California.
The UC Board of Regents is expected to approve Massey next month as senior vice president for academic affairs and provost of the nine-campus system, officials said.
Massey, 54, would be the highest-ranking African-American in the UC system. If approved, he will succeed William R. Frazer, who returned to teaching at UC Berkeley last summer.
As head of the Science Foundation for the past two years, the physicist oversaw the federal government’s main support for research and education in science, mathematics and engineering. Previously, Massey was vice president for research at the University of Chicago and vice president for the Argonne National Laboratory, which the University of Chicago manages for the federal government.
In announcing Massey’s nomination, UC President Jack W. Peltason described him as “an outstanding educator and a skillful administrator with extensive experience at large and complex institutions.”
Massey will make $190,000 a year and will begin in April, Peltason said.
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